Sarah Palin is resigning as governor of Alaska (Can't believe I'm first over here with the news, but here it is.)

Zuh? The linked article speculates the resignation will give her more time to focus on the 2012 presidential race. Oh please, God, no!

Here's video of her announcement. If y'all can make any sense of what she's saying, you're doing better than I. Geez, all I hear is, "Blah, blah, blah, mean media, blah, blah, sports analogy, blah, blah, real winners quit, blah, blah..."



Her explanation is typical rambling Sarahspeak, taking lots of words to say nothing much of substance:

"Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional Lame Duck status in this particular climate would just be another dose of politics as usual, something I campaigned against and will always oppose," Palin said in a statement released by her office.

"It is my duty to always protect our great state. With that in mind, my family and I determined that it is best to make a difference this summer, and I am willing to change things, so that this administration, with its positive agenda, its accomplishments, and its successful road to an incredible future, can continue without interruption and with great administrative and legislative success," she said.

Um, really? That just stinks of BS. Maybe she wants to be free to campaign incessantly for the next three-plus years, or maybe something's about to blow up in her face. It's interesting that she dropped this little news nugget on the Friday of a holiday weekend in the middle of the summer.

We'll see.

ETA Talking Points Memo is following the story. The latest update (as of 3:50 PM CDT):

Andrea Mitchell says sources close to Gov. Palin say she is now "out of politics for good."

I'll believe it when I see it. Todd Purdum of Vanity Fair wrote a pretty scathing profile of Palin for the August 2009 issue. I didn't appreciate the sexist framing -- woman as monster ("It Came from Wasilla"), woman ruled by emotions and likely even mentally ill (unsupported references to narcissistic personality disorder and postpartum depression) -- but the trashing she got from former McCain campaign staffers couldn't have helped her with mainstream Republicans.

OTOH, it likely gave her a huge boost in Wingnutland. Jesse Taylor at Pandagon noted a few days ago that Redstate demanded all of those staffers prove they didn't talk to VF or face the wrath of, um, some blog. (I'm not quite sure how one proves a negative, but that's wingnut logic for you.)

Late addition: MSNBC just spoke with Alaska radio host Shannyn Moore, who says rumors of a criminal investigation have been swirling for six weeks. Could that be the other shoe?